On August 8 at Lausanne there was opened a conference of faith and order in the Christian Church which was of worldwide significance, Delegates were present from every part of the world and there was a distinct movement made towards the abolition or, at least, minimization of what has been called the "unhappy divisions" of Protestant christianity, China' was represented at the Lausanne conference by the Rev. Timothy] Lew pp. of Yenching University Peking. Dr. Lew addressed the conference in English which wa translated into French for th benefit of delegates to_ whom English was unfamiliar and his address made a deep impression. In the course of his speech he fai "We Chinese Christiana who xepresent the various leading denom-Inations express -qur regret. that we are divided by the denomina tionalism that comes - from the West.. We are not unware of the diverse gifts, through the denomina tions that have been used of God for the enrichment of the church, Yet we recognize fully that denominationalism is based differences, the historical significance of which, however real and vital to the missionaries from the West, ere not shared by us Chinese. Therefore denominationalism, in being an inspiration, has.
and is, a source of confusion, bewilderment and_inefficioney'
The case against those divisions in the Christian church which lead to the multiplication of small and struggling churches; at Home and isolated missions: to foreign lands could not well] be better put. The great denoriinations, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, ete., sprang into existence Decatise of the necessity, at the time of their inception, of maintaining some vital truth that was being threatened by the national government or the authorities of the then ruling church, In the opinion of many of the members of those same denominations these little—little in comparison with the whole body. of the church—systems have had their day and should cease' to be a source of division and weakness. The truths they were created to uphold are still] important and will never be discarded but are not such as should make separation. The motto of the great Keswick convent In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity," should be cepted as the watchword of the whole church. objective which the conference thas at heart, Missionaries and Chinese pastors are deliberating together, in entire harmony, to the desirability of obliterating denominational lines and discarding the confusing names by which these various branches of the church have hitherto been known, Henceforth there is to be but one designation for the church the Chinese characters! of which may be translated. "The Church of China" and the various foreign denominational names will be thrown into the waste paper basket.
This means that the relative position of the missionary and the Chinese pastor is to be reversed. The Chinese pastor }will be the minister in charge and the foreign missionary a kind of unofficial adviser. This, Jat first sight, may seem hard on those missionaries who have actually founded churches and seen them develop under their jeare into strong, self-reliant, organizations.. And yet a misionary's work is only well and {truly done when he can eliminate himself and see his work carried to fruition by men whom he has trained. He is not to win the race but to pass the torch to, those who will carry it to the winnjpg post. If the Chinese church has not men in its ranks leapable of carrying on the work of evangelization then the missionary's work has been failure, Yet it cannot be said that fall that the conference aims at has been realized. Not all the churches in China are enrolled under the banner unfurled at Jessfield. Probably half of the members of the Chinese church are represented there and this, itself, is very great proportion. There is no reason to doubt that the other half is not weill disposed towards the movement. The one serious drawback to the full realization of the aims of the conference is that the Chinese church is not yet financially independent. It would not be possible for the "Church. of China" to carry on the present activities of missionary work were all the missionaries withdrawn or did mission support come to an end. Happily neither of these contingencies are in contemplation at the present moment. The action taken at St. John's is not likely to make any marked difference in the immediate future, but it indicates a new orientation of the church in China and one that holds high promise for the future, During the past week there has been sitting, at St. Mary's School, a conference of delegates from every part of China who have -met to deliberate on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.